Dave Lee Travis has pleaded not guilty to 14 counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual assault in alleged offences spanning three decades.

The former BBC Radio 1 DJ will stand trial on 14 January after denying a string of charges in a brief hearing at Southwark crown court on Tuesday morning.

He is accused of assaulting 11 women, including a 15-year-old girl, in incidents dating from January 1976 to November 2008. Travis, who answered to his real name David Patrick Griffin, stood alongside a court guard in the dock as he entered not guilty pleas to 14 counts of indecent assault and one further count of sexual assault.

The 68-year-old broadcaster, who was first arrested under Scotland Yard's Operation Yewtree investigation last November, is due to go on trial on 14 January for up to six weeks.

The judge, Anthony Leonard, ordered Travis to return to Southwark crown court on 13 January for a pre-trial hearing and released him on bail.

When told he must appear at the next hearing, the entertainer nodded once and said: "I understand." Earlier, Travis appeared to have difficulty hearing the court clerk as she read the first of 15 counts to him as he stood in the dock.

Asking for his plea to the first count, relating to the alleged indecent assault of a woman between 1976 and 1977, Travis answered: "Not guilty. And may I request that you speak up or move closer to the microphone because I can't hear you."

Wearing a green tweed jacket over a white shirt and patterned tie, Travis made no comment as he entered and left court through a media scrum.

The former DJ, whose Magic FM show has been suspended until the outcome of his trial, is one of four individuals charged under the Operation Yewtree investigation into alleged offences by Jimmy Savile and others.

Charges have also been brought against the Australian entertainer Rolf Harris, the celebrity publicist Max Clifford and the former chauffeur David Smith. Each of the four men were arrested separately under the "others" strand of Operation Yewtree, which means their offences are not connected to Savile.